PALM BEACH MAY DEVIATE FROM NEW ELECTION PAPER TRAIL
Palm Beach Post -- June 20, 2007
by George Bennett
As if determined to uphold Palm Beach County's reputation for election
controversy, frustrated county commissioners Tuesday raised the
possibility of defying Florida's new ballot ''paper-trail'' law because
they say the state isn't providing enough money to pay for it.
The commission was scheduled to vote on accepting a $5.1 million state
grant to replace paperless electronic voting machines with optical
scanners that read paper ballots. But commissioners put off the vote
for
a week and asked their legal staff to research what would happen if the
county flouts the new law.
The defiant talk arose after Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said
switching to a paper-based voting system will cost county taxpayers
$5.9
million on top of the money the state is providing.
Anderson's figure includes about $4 million for additional scanners and
other equipment beyond what the state is purchasing and $2 million to
print paper ballots for each countywide election.
Secretary of State Kurt Browning, a former elections supervisor,
questioned some of Anderson's estimates and said the state never
contemplated paying the entire cost for the new voting system.
With commissioners already bristling at a state-ordered 7 percent cut
in
the county's property tax revenues, Commissioner Mary McCarty accused
legislators of ''hypocrisy'' for mandating elections changes but
requiring counties to pay much of the cost.
''I'd just like to call their bluff on this,'' McCarty told her
colleagues.
McCarty and other commissioners said afterward they weren't making an
idle threat.
''I want to take a look at it. I seriously do,'' said Commissioner Jeff
Koons.
``[State legislators] are underfunding what we need to have a
successful
election.''
Said Commission Chairwoman Addie Greene: ``I'd like to know what
they're
going to do if we don't buy the new equipment. ...Will they put all the
commissioners in jail?''
Palm Beach County was the home of the 2000 presidential ''butterfly
ballot'' and then was the site of some early controversies and
litigation over paperless voting.
Recognizing the county's place in election infamy, Gov. Charlie Crist
traveled to West Palm Beach last month to sign the bill that outlaws
most paperless voting and requires paper optical-scan ballots at all
polling places by next fall.
For Palm Beach County and 14 other Florida counties that use paperless
systems now, the legislation provides $27.9 million to buy optical
scanners.
''Gov. Crist has every confidence that Palm Beach County will comply
with the new law,'' Crist spokesman Thomas Philpot said Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, who has spent years opposing
electronic voting and who helped persuade Crist to support the
paper-trail legislation, noted that commissioners pledged more than $3
million in county money in 2004 to create a paper trail.
''Palm Beach County has previously committed itself to a paper trail
and
they need to follow through. ... They need to keep their word to the
voters,'' Wexler said.
The state's $5.1 million grant is enough to buy one $6,000 ballot
scanner at each of 768 precincts and 15 early-voting sites in the
county.
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